Neil Sedaka

But, you know, I bought her her Ming Stoll, so she was very, very happy after that.

Well, it started early in the career and it was kind of someone singing along.

Perhaps they were just getting into the song and they didn't get into the lyric yet.

So they were going, down do-be-do, down, down, before they began the actual song.

And it was, how did I choose the syllables?

The most important thing in songwriting was the marriage of words and music.

And the syllables had to fit the particular melody.

And I was very keen on that marriage of lyrics or syllables set to music.

I think it was O'Carroll I did double voice.

But Breaking Up is an interesting song because I think I'm the only artist who has recorded his song twice.

I did it first as a rock and roll song in 1962, and then I re-recorded Breaking Up is Hard to Do 15 years later as a slow gin mill song.

And by the way, both of them were huge successes.

Lenny Welch, a great singer who had a hit called Since I Fell for You, was a friend and asked if I had any follow-up to Since I Fell for You.

And I was fooling around at the piano one day and discovered that Breaking Up Is Hard To Do worked as a slow song.

And I presented it to him.

He loved it.

And recorded it as a ballad.

And it was an R&B hit.

And then I would do it as an encore in my concerts.

And the audience reaction was so good that I decided to re-record it as a ballad.